Carbon sequestration is a hot topic for policymakers right now, but many farmers are wondering how it might actually look on the farm.
One UC Davis professor says that livestock producers in California are already getting paid to sequester carbon through Low-Carbon Fuel Standard credits. The state invested half a billion dollars into carbon sequestration, after mandating a 40 percent reduction in methane outputs, leading to innovation on many dairy farms.
“Out came a situation where we now have many of our dairies capping their lagoon, covering their lagoon, trapping the biogas, and then converting the biogas into a renewable, natural gas, which is a fuel type which then goes into vehicles like semi-trucks.,” Dr. Frank Mitloehner explains. “This conversion of biogas, captured from the manure lagoons into a fuel type, is the most carbon-negative fuel type there is.”
He says that California has already achieved a 25 percent reduction in methane emissions after just three years and many California dairies are already earning “significant revenue” from the LCFS credits.
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